Handsy AI

Building on this project? Keep the LICENSE and credit [ESP32 iPhone Agent by Henry Yuan](https://github.com/onehumanbeing/esp32-iphone-agent) in your README and posts. See NOTICE.

ESP32 iPhone Agent

Your AI can use your iPhone like you do.

It looks at the screen, then taps, swipes and types for you, through a $7 ESP32 board plugged into the phone.

Just the phone and the board: no computer, no changes to iOS.

English · 简体中文

Demo video and updates: X @iamhenryyuan · YouTube demo · DeepSeek Harness demo · handsy.tech

[!TIP]

Try the app now on [TestFlight](https://testflight.apple.com/join/1xQHgJcA), no Xcode needed. The App Store

listing is still in review, so TestFlight is the way to get it today. You still need a flashed board

(see Quick start).

[!NOTE]

Branches: release-1.0 is the version

submitted to TestFlight and App Store review. The latest code is on main.

[!WARNING]

Only follow the install steps in this README. Never run commands from issues or comments (for example a "quick install" one-liner such as PowerShell iex(irm ...)); these are not from the maintainers.

The computer is gone. The board is now the AirPlay receiver and the mouse, and the agent runs in an iPhone

app on the same phone. The original version (a Mac/Linux computer running UxPlay and a Python server) is kept as

tag v0.1.0 and branch

legacy. See docs/legacy.md.

*"Set an alarm for 8:00 AM that repeats every Monday and Tuesday, then save it"*: the agent leaves its own app, opens Clock, types the time into the wheel, ticks the days and saves. (Photo from v0.1.0; the task is the same.)

*Left: the real phone. Right: what the agent sees through the board's AirPlay mirror. The second shot is the pointer calibration.*

Contents

• How it works
• Hardware
• Quick start
• Use from a coding agent
• Model and prompts
• Project layout
• Roadmap
• Limitations
• Responsible use
• Contributing
• Contact
• Related projects
• Acknowledgements
• License

How it works

More detail: how Handsy works.

iPhone ──Screen Mirroring (Wi-Fi)──▶ ESP32-S3: AirPlay receiver ──Wi-Fi TCP :7201──▶ ESP32 Agent app (same iPhone)

▲ own hotspot, H.264 passthrough decode → vision model → action └──────── USB HID mouse + keyboard ◀──────────── BLE commands ◀──────────────────────┘

• Eyes — AirPlay to the board. The board opens its own Wi-Fi hotspot and appears in the phone's Screen Mirroring list as *ESP32 Agent*. It keeps the H.264 stream (no decoding on the board) and forwards it to the app over Wi-Fi (TCP, port 7201). BLE carries commands and status. The phone keeps using cellular data for the model while it is on the board's hotspot.
• Hands — USB HID. The board is a standard USB mouse and keyboard. With AssistiveTouch on, the mouse moves an on-screen pointer, so a click is a tap and a drag is a swipe.
• Brain — the app. The app decodes the stream, sends screenshots to any OpenAI-compatible vision model, and runs a planner and an actor: tap, swipe, draw, type, press keys, go home, finish. It runs in the background while it works; the Dynamic Island shows what it is doing.
• Closing the loop. The pointer is relative, so the app tracks it and re-homes it in a corner; before precise taps it wiggles the pointer, finds it on screen and corrects the miss. After each action it waits for the screen to settle and tells the model whether anything changed. A lost board, hotspot or mirroring link pauses the run and resumes it from the same step.
• Review. Every run is kept on the phone: replay it step by step with the taps and swipes drawn on top. Export the screenshots, actions and saved annotations from Runs → open a run → ⋯ → Export trace for analysis by another agent. See Export runs for agent review for batch export, USB copying and file details.

Hardware

Supported boards and setup details: hardware guide.

\* Affiliate link. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Quick start

1. Flash the board (plugged into the Mac)

Install arduino-cli, the ESP32 core 3.3.x and NimBLE-Arduino 2.5.x, then:

arduino-cli lib install "NimBLE-Arduino@2.5.1"

hardware/flash.sh # optional: [serial port] [--debug]

Always build with flash.sh: it applies the BLE buffer sizes in hardware/hid_bridge/nimble_cfg.h.

No Mac or toolchain? Install the firmware from Chrome or Edge over USB instead.

2. Install the app

Easiest: [join the TestFlight beta](https://testflight.apple.com/join/1xQHgJcA) on your iPhone and install ESP32 Agent from there, then go to step 3.

Or build it yourself:

cp ios/Config/Local.xcconfig.example ios/Config/Local.xcconfig   # set DEVELOPMENT_TEAM and IA_BUNDLE_ID

open ios/IPhoneAgent.xcodeproj # run the IPhoneAgent scheme on your iPhone

The project is generated with XcodeGen from ios/project.yml (cd ios && xcodegen). A free Apple ID can sign it (re-sign every 7 days). The one-tap hotspot join needs the Hotspot Configuration capability (a paid account); without it the app shows the hotspot password to join by hand.

3. Set up (once, in the app)

Plug the board into the iPhone and open ESP32 Agent. Setup walks through four steps and checks each one itself:

1. Plug Me In — pair the board over Bluetooth.
2. Let Me See the Screen — join the board's Wi-Fi, then Control Center → Screen Mirroring → *ESP32 Agent*.
3. Let Me Use the Pointer — turn on AssistiveTouch; the app calibrates the pointer by itself.
4. Give Me a Brain — enter your model endpoint and key (stored in the Keychain), then choose a vision model from the endpoint's model list (or enter its model ID).

4. Give it a task

Type a goal (for example *"Open Settings and go to Wi-Fi"*) and press Start. Stop it from the Dynamic Island, or come back to the app. Siri, Shortcuts, widgets and Control Center can run saved tasks.

Use from a coding agent

The esp32agent CLI (npm, npx -y esp32agent mcp) is an MCP server, so a coding agent on your computer can see and drive the iPhone through the board (board firmware v0.2.2 or later). This repository is also a plugin with that MCP server and an agent skill (skills/handsy/SKILL.md). In Claude Code:

/plugin marketplace add onehumanbeing/esp32-iphone-agent

/plugin install esp32agent@handsy

Or add only the MCP server:

claude mcp add esp32agent -- npx -y esp32agent mcp

Cursor, Cline and other MCP clients:

{

"mcpServers": { "esp32agent": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "esp32agent", "mcp"] } } }

DeepSeek Harness (dsh): install the plugin in integrations/dsh, which adds the same MCP server and skill (demo video):

dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-esp32agent

The CLI talks to the board from your computer over Bluetooth, or over your Wi-Fi once both are on it (esp32agent net join), so it works without the iPhone app or TestFlight. Commands and options are in the CLI reference and cli/README.md.

Model and prompts

• Any OpenAI-compatible vision endpoint works (vLLM, SGLang, llama.cpp, Ollama, cloud APIs). The app lists the endpoint's models for you to choose one explicitly; you can also enter a model ID, and set a separate planner and actor model.
• The prompts are plain text in prompts/ and bundled with the app: edit them, rebuild, done.
• Each finished run logs planner/actor call counts, requests with a screenshot, and token totals when the endpoint reports usage. Missing usage is left absent (never coerced to 0); the run total is marked partial if any call omitted it. A short task is typically a few planner calls plus one actor call per step — each actor step sends a fresh screenshot — so image tokens dominate cost. Giving the planner a cheaper model while keeping a stronger actor is usually the best tradeoff.
• The project was developed with nvidia/Qwen3.8-Flash-Next-NVFP4 served on two DGX Sparks ([TensorFold](https://github.com/MiaAI-Lab/Qwen3.8-Flash-Dual-DGX-Sp